"Hate Hotel"

Hate Hotel

Listen to Tony Hoagland reading this poem. Sometimes I like to think about the people I hate. I take my room at the Hate Hotel, and I sit and flip through the heavy pages of the photographs, the rogue's gallery of the faces I loathe.

My lamp of resentment sputters twice, then comes on strong,filling the room with its red light.That's how hate works—it thrills you and kills you

with its deep heat.Sometimes I like to sit and soakin the Jacuzzi of my hate, hatching my plots

like a general running his hands over a military map—and my bombers have been sent outover the dwellings of my foes,and are releasing their cargo of ill will

on the targets below, the hate bombs falling in silenceinto the lives of the hate-recipients.

From the high window of my officein the Government of Hate,where I stay up late, working hard,where I make no bargains, entertain noscenarios of reconciliation,

I watch the hot flowers flare up all acrossthe city, the state, the continent—I sip my soft drink of hate on the rocksand let the punishment go on unstopped,

March 3 2015 1:39 PMThe “Most Pleasurable Portrayal of Libertarianism“ Bonus SegmentDavid, Emily, and John discuss what Parks and Recreation got right about government.Emily Bazelon, David Plotz, and John Dickerson